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The Renaissance of 
Methodism 

J. W. MAHOOD 

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Knnk * H 3 D 
Copyright^ 0 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



j/w/mahood 

Author of "The Art of Soul-Winning," 
"The Victory Life," Etc. 



" Awake, awake ; put on thy strength, O Zion ; 
put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem ! ' ' 



CINCINNATI: JENNINGS AND GRAHAM 
NEW YORK: EATON AND MAINS 



Otalgia tain 
CO PI c» 3 



"BXir 



Copyright, 1905, by 
Jennings and Graham 



THE PLAN 

Page 

The Clarion Call, 7 

An Evangelistic Ministry, - - - 13 

An Evangelistic Church, 37 

Doctrines to be Preached, ... 55 

Methods to be Emphasized, ... 67 



5 



The Clarion Call. 



The appointment of an evangelistic com- 
mission at the recent session of the General 
Conference is a clarion call to Methodism. 
It would seem to indicate a return to ag- 
gressive evangelism, and the dawn of a new 
era for our Church. It was the answer to 
the cry of thousands of prayerful hearts for 
a movement that would stir the Church to 
world-wide evangelistic activity. Never 
was the time riper than now for a great 
spiritual quickening and forward movement 
for the salvation of the race. Perronet, the 
venerable vicar of Shoreham, said, "I make 
no doubt that Methodism is designed to in- 
troduce the millennium." However that 
may be, it is certain that Methodism must 
keep step with her sister denominations in 
the work of the world's evangelization. 
9 



io Renaissance of Methodism. 



This latest movement is an indication of a 
renewed interest in soul-winning, and we 
shall devoutly pray that it may mean a Re- 
naissance of Methodism. 

The rise of Methodism was the revival 
of primitive Christianity. The Wesleys and 
their co-workers were apostolic in life and 
labors. In the United Kingdom, Christian- 
ity had become a mere dogma or a divine 
scheme of philosophy — nothing more. In 
sermon and in song the Wesleys taught that 
Christianity was a divine power, and that 
nothing short of a new birth by the Holy 
Spirit of God would entitle a man to be 
called a Christian. This was the secret of 
the marvelous growth of Methodism in 
Great Britain and, later, in our own land. 
The conversion of the soul by faith in 
Christ, followed by the witness of the Spirit 
to adoption, was the great theme of these 
heaven-sent heralds of the Cross, whose 
school of theology had been the Holy Club. 



The Clarion Caw,. ii 



Thus it was that, from the beginning, Meth- 
odism was like the early Christian Church 
— a revival Church. 

In the apostolic Church evangelization 
was always first, then organization, then 
education. It was so in early Methodism. 
But in this twentieth century we seem to 
have changed that plan. Now organization 
and education have the pre-eminence. Some 
may not be ready to admit this. Neverthe- 
less, he who studies closely the conditions in 
our Churches will find this to be true. For 
instance, the money given for the direct 
work of evangelization is comparatively 
small compared with that given for educa- 
tion. Not that there is too much given for 
the great work of education, but too little 
for the greater work of evangelization. We 
raised twenty millions as a thank-offering ; 
but how much of it was given to promote 
special revival and soul-winning and home 
missionary work in our cities and rural 



12 Renaissance of Methodism. 

communities ? Indeed, the work of trying to 
win two million souls to Christ seemed a 
side issue to the raising of twenty million 
dollars. This is mentioned to suggest that 
we have not been giving the proper em- 
phasis to the direct work of soul-winning, 
that the temporal affairs of the Church have 
largely occupied our attention, and that we 
have lost much of the spirit of the early 
Christian Church and of early Methodism. 

Nor will all our great educational in- 
stitutions, our great philanthropic move- 
ments, and our great benevolent enterprises 
atone for this neglect. Unless Methodism 
shall bestir herself, God will give to some 
other denomination the leadership in evan- 
gelistic work, and we shall lose our crown. 



An Evangelistic Ministry. 



Is the; ministry evangelistic? To the 
thoughtful student of present-day condi- 
tions this is not a foolish question. It can 
not be denied that there is a prevalent im- 
pression in the ministry that all ministers 
are not necessarily soul-winners. Some 
pastors are ready to declare that their pecul- 
iar gift is the ability to build fine churches. 
Others say that their success lies in rais- 
ing money for the Lord's work, and they 
glory in reporting a big missionary or edu- 
cational collection. Yet others have a 
worthy ambition to become great preachers ; 
but the abuse of this ambition has led some 
of them into all sorts of literary tricks and 
foibles, so that they often have more to say 
about Aristotle or Plato or Emerson than 
about Jesus Christ. Others think that their 
15 



16 Renaissance; of Methodism. 

special gifts can only find development on 
the lecture platform. They have a mes- 
sage for the people, and they seek this op- 
portunity to speak it. 

Now, not one word against the right use 
of these special gifts. They are God-given, 
and in their place, are necessary. But this 
must be said: The supreme work of that 
man who has been called of God to the 
Christian ministry is soul-winning, and 
when he gives any other work the first 
place, or neglects to make this the chief end 
of his work, by so much does he cripple his 
power as a minister of Jesus Christ, and 
disobey his call. 

In the choosing of His apostles our Lord 
left us an object lesson which can not be 
mistaken, and which indisputably proves 
that when Jesus Christ says to any man, 
"Follow Me, and I will make you a fisher 
of men," He will take that man and turn 
every one of his peculiar gifts to account in 



An Evangelistic Ministry. 17 

the work of saving- men. Look at three of 
the apostles. There was Matthew, a hard- 
headed business man ; Peter, a cursing fish- 
erman; and Paul, a college graduate, — yet 
He made all these soul-winners. They did 
not all use the same methods, to be sure. 
"He gave some to be apostles; and some, 
prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, 
pastors and teachers ;" but all were soul- 
winners. 

Early Methodism maintained the apos- 
tolic order. All her preachers were soul- 
winners. They had a great variety of gifts, 
but every gift was consecrated to this one 
work. They called George Whitefield's 
chapel, at Moorfields, a "soul trap." That 
was characteristic of the Methodist chapels 
everywhere. But it is to be feared that in 
these later days we have emphasized many 
other things in many of our Churches, and 
that even in our theological seminaries the 
art of soul-winning has not been given its 
2 



1 8 Renaissance; of Methodism. 



proper place. And herein is the reason for 
the decline of the earnest, gospelizing, soul- 
winning spirit in Methodism. 

Now, there are some things responsible 
for the decadence of evangelism in the min- 
istry. 

i. Over-emphasis upon Intellectuality. 
This is not said to decry an educated min- 
istry by any means. Christianity has al- 
ways encouraged education and culture. 
These are the handmaids of Christianity. 
But some have put the handmaids on the 
throne, and Christ is being "crucified on 
many a literary cross" to-day. If one-half 
the intellect of the modern pulpit were heart, 
we might sooner see the triumph of Chris- 
tianity. For it is the self-centered, self- 
confident intellectualism of the day that 
dares try to overthrow the foundations of 
the Word of God. The disposition to think 
that the intellect is everything, that the 
heart-hunger, the emotions, the instincts, 



An Evangelistic Ministry. 19 

the affections are nothing, is the bane of the 
spiritual life of some of our Churches. 
"Everything must be brought to the bar of 
reason/' they say; and men seem to forget 
that "the feeling part of our nature is just 
as reliable as the arguing part/' for both 
are God-given. 

Why this lament over the dearth of great 
revivals? Why do the chariot-wheels drag 
heavily? Joseph Parker used to say that 
it is because the Church has taken to ar- 
gument, analysis, metaphysical disquisition, 
controversial statement, high and dry sys- 
tematic theology, and lost faith. And the 
great preacher was right. There are men 
in our pulpits who are intellectual giants, 
subtle in argument, keen in logic, but pow- 
erless to win a soul. Dr. R. J. Campbell, 
of London, after a recent visit to this coun- 
try, declared that "among American min- 
isters intellect and spirituality are divorced ; 
that unhappily they are not often found in 



2o Renaissance: off Methodism. 



the same men ; that the intellectual and spir- 
itual leaders of the Church are different 
sets." 

Then, too, we have our theories upon 
which to perform our intellectual gymnas- 
tics — theories of the atonement, theories of 
Church government, theories of missionary 
enterprise, and there is no room left for 
heart power. We spin our intellectual cob- 
webs while the multitudes starve and perish. 

In one of our largest Methodist colleges 
there is a young lady who, previous to her 
college days, was one of the best Christian 
workers in her home Church, but who has 
now lost her power in soul-winning. She 
said to a friend: "In many ways I have 
been helped here; but it does seem to me 
that the Christian religion is becoming a 
mere philosophy, nicely arranged and to be 
admired, but Christ is becoming vague and 
distant. My soul is starving." That expe- 
rience is not uncommon in our schools and 



An Evangelistic Ministry. 21 

Churches to-day, and it is the result of put- 
ting the emphasis in the wrong place. 

We see the same tendency sometimes in 
our Annual Conferences, when young men 
come to the Conference bar for admission. 
How often much more time is spent in in- 
quiring about their intellectual qualifica- 
tions than about their heart qualifications ! 
We are anxious that they should have 
college diplomas, but we seem to take for 
granted their ability to win souls to Christ. 
Measured by the standards of the early 
Christian Church and of early Methodism, 
this is all wrong. The spiritual life must 
always have the ascendency. Then the 
mightiest intellects may flame with life and 
love and power. Look at that great teacher, 
Professor Tholuck, of Halle. When he had 
been a university professor for nearly fifty 
years he said : "From the age of seventeen 
I have always asked myself, 'What is the 
chief end of man's life ?' I could never per- 



22 Renaissance of Methodism. 



suade myself that the acquisition of knowl- 
edge was this end. Just then God brought 
me into contact with a venerable saint who 
lived in fellowship with Christ, and from 
that time I have had but one passion, and 
that is Christ, and Christ alone. Every one 
out of Christ I look upon as a fortress which 
I must storm and win. I was in my eight- 
eenth year when the Lord gave me my first 
convert. He was an artillery officer, a Jew, 
a wild creature without rest; but soon he 
became such a true follower of Christ that 
he put me to shame. And when I look back 
upon the thousands of youths whose hearts 
have opened up under my influence, I can 
say, 'The Lord hath done it/ In working 
thus to save souls, my life has been one of 
joy rather than toil." 

2. Doubt concerning the Possibility of 
Prayer, In these later years there has been 
at work a subtle influence of evil by which 
the power of prayer has been discounted. 



An Evangelistic Ministry. 23 

This talk about the reflex influence of 
prayer, coupled with the influence of ma- 
terialism and utilitarianism, has made many 
of us pigmies in the realm of prayer. To 
be sure, prayer has its gracious reflex in- 
fluences. We see that demonstrated at Pen- 
tecost. Had it not been for a ten-day 
prayer-meeting, crowned with the baptism 
of the Holy Spirit, Peter would never have 
been ready for that occasion. But the re- 
flex influence is not all. He who lives near 
to his Lord has proven again and again that 
God hears and directly answers prayer. 
Now and then there has flashed across the 
world's pathway the radiance of a life of 
prayer, like that of Catherine of Sienna, 
George Mueller, Hudson Taylor, or Charles 
G. Finney. Then we have glimpses of the 
possibilities of prayer, and have come to 
see that the ear of our Heavenly Father is 
always open to the cry of His obedient chil- 
dren. 



24 Renaissance; off Methodism. 

Let the humblest minister of Jesus Christ 
spend ten days in humiliation and prayer 
before God, and he will do a great work for 
God in any community. Let the humblest 
disciple of the Lord wait at the mercy-seat 
day and night until the victory comes, and 
something will happen in the community 
where that disciple lives. The first night 
after Father Chiniquy had been converted 
he spent in prayer. Next day lie 
preached, and one thousand souls were 
saved. Dr. J. W. Chapman tells about 
a Baptist minister w T ho, during a four- 
teen-year pastorate, had received some peo- 
ple into his Church at every communion 
service. Other ministers wondered at his 
success. When, at the close of his pas- 
torate in that Church, he called on a bed- 
ridden saint to bid him good-bye, the sick 
man said : "Doctor, I have never heard you 
preach, but in all the time that you have 
been the pastor of our Church I have prayed 



An Evangelistic Ministry. 25 

for you without ceasing. Whenever I could 
not sleep I prayed, and Saturday nights es- 
pecially, I asked God for a great blessing 
to rest on you on the morrow." Then it 
was known that this humble sufferer had 
been the soul-winner, although he could not 
leave his room. The prayer of faith still 
prevails, and did we believe in its power we 
would value above gold the intercession of 
those who know the secret of the Lord. 
Mr. Sptirgeon used to say, "I have no confi- 
dence in the polished literary effort to bring 
about a revival, but I have all the confidence 
in the world in the old saint who could weep 
her eyes out because men are lost." 

3. More Attention to the Temporal Inter- 
ests of the Church than to Soul-winning. 
W e have been spending "too much time ask- 
ing men for dollars, and too little time ask- 
ing God for souls." To be sure, the dollars 
are necessary ; but the time and effort spent 
in the direct work of soul-winning is alto- 



26 Renaissance oe Methodism. 



gether out of proportion to the time and ef- 
fort spent in looking after the temporal af- 
fairs of the Church. Here and there we 
find a presiding elder who goes over his dis- 
trict like a flame of fire, kindling revivals 
everywhere; but most of our presiding 
elders are so burdened with the temporal 
matters of the Church that they have no 
time for revival leadership. As a rule, too, 
the average pastor knows very well that it 
counts more in the way of promotion to 
have raised a big missionary or educational 
collection, or to have built a fine church, 
than to have led fifty souls to Christ. 

But there are Some Essentials to an 
Evangelistic Ministry. 

I. The Minister of Jesus Christ must 
have a High Conception of the Supreme 
Importance of His Work. The man called 
of God to preach the gospel and be a fisher 
of men occupies the highest position of trust 



An Evangelistic Ministry. 27 

under heaven. I care not how humble his 
field; I care not how difficult the problem 
that confronts him, — that man who has 
God's commission to preach the gospel to 
dying men is a King's messenger with a 
King's message. And the Word of God 
declares that he who is a soul-winner is the 
most highly honored of men. "They that 
are wise shall shine as the brightness of the 
firmament; and they that turn many to 
righteousness as the stars for ever and 
ever." Greater than kings or queens or 
mighty warriors or the discoverers of 
worlds is the man who can woo a soul to 
Christ. After Sir Humphrey Davy had 
enumerated all his discoveries in philosophy 
and chemistry he said, "But the greatest of 
my discoveries is Michael Faraday." The 
true minister of Jesus Christ is a discoverer 
of immortal souls, and one soul is worth 
more than a million worlds. 

John Wesley and the Duke of Welling- 



28 Renaissance of Methodism. 

ton were cousins. But the men were widely 
different and their work was widely different. 
The Duke of Wellington fought battles, 
bathed the earth in blood, wrapped homes 
and cities in flames. John Wesley, who 
during his lifetime was despised by the rich 
and great, and was turned out of the 
Churches, led nearly seventy-five thousand 
souls to Christ, and, to-day, exerts a greater 
influence in the world than any other re- 
ligious leader of modern times. And of 
these two, which, think you, is the greatest 
in Heaven's sight to-day ? 

The man who has not a high conception 
of the call and office of the Christian min- 
istry will not speak with authority. And 
here is the secret of many a man's failure. 
He is not sure of his commission. When 
he stands before the multitude of the un- 
saved, there is an uncertain note in his mes- 
sage which always betrays him. Would to 
God that we might all wait in the upper 



An Evangelistic Ministry. 29 

room until we become conscious of the 
greatness of our mission, and like Peter at 
Pentecost, and like the Master himself, 
speak with authority! 

2. He must have Unswerving Faith in 
the Word of God. No man has ever been 
known as a soul-winner who denied the 
plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. 
To a large gathering of ministers of various 
denominations President Patton, of Prince- 
ton, said : "Stand by the old Book. If any 
man says something against it, you go to the 
evidence. You say to him, 'We have good 
counsel; and when they prove recreant we 
will discharge them and employ others ; but 
we will stand by the Book/ " Every suc- 
cessful minister of Christ must have un- 
bounded faith in the Bible. And when I 
say 'in the Bible/ I mean in the whole Bible, 
from Genesis to Revelation. To begin to 
doubt the genuineness of any book of Scrip- 
ture is to open the way to a disposition to 



30 Renaissance: of Methodism. 

doubt and tear down the whole fabric of 
truth. 

The late Dr. A. J. Gordon used to tell a 
story about a deacon of a colored Church. 
Dr. Gordon asked the deacon how the peo- 
ple liked their new preacher. He was sur- 
prised to hear him say, "Not bery much.'' 
When pressed for an explanation the old 
colored man said, "He tells too many anti- 
dotes." "I am surprised to hear that," said 
Dr. Gordon, "for I thought he was a great 
Bible man." "Well," said the deacon, "I '11 
tell you how 't is. He 's de best man I eber 
seed to tak' the Bible apart, but he dunno 
how to put it togedder agin." That is an 
excellent description of some men who live 
to-day. They find it easy to take God's 
Word apart ; but when they have done that, 
there is nothing left, and there is no au- 
thority in their message. The men who ac- 
cept the Bible as the Divine Word of God 
are the men who are speaking with author- 
ity to-day. 



An Evangelistic Ministry. 31 

3. He must exalt Christ as the Divine Son 
of God. We have come to a time when we 
must emphasize as never before the doc- 
trine of the person of Christ. It is more im- 
portant to know who Jesus was than to 
know what He said ; for the authority of His 
Word depends upon who He is. And what 
you think about the Lamb of God is going 
to affect what you- think about the efficacy 
of His atonement. The man who does not 
have an absolutely settled conviction con- 
cerning the Divinity of our Lord and the 
vicariousness of His blood, will have no 
authoritative message for these days. And 
there is a good deal of the kind of preach- 
ing to-day that has no authority. It patron- 
izes Christ. "He was a good man," they 
say, "a sort of Palestinian Buddha or Con- 
fucius, but still a man." As Joseph Parker 
says, "They damn Him with faint praise." 
They make light of the blood and the sacri- 
fice. They exalt the ethical teachings of 



32 Renaissance: of Methodism. 

Christ. But if this old world is ever saved, 
the pulpit must be "a pedestal for the 
Cross." The only true preaching- is the 
preaching of the Christ of God for Christ's 
sake, and it is this message for which a 
dying world is waiting. Indeed, it is only 
to them who preach the Divine Christ, the 
Christ crucified, to whom the Holy Spirit 
is given for witnessing power. Paul, writ- 
ing to the Corinthians, said: "And I was 
with you in weakness, and in fear, and in 
much trembling. And my speech and my 
preaching was not with enticing words of 
man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the 
Spirit and of power." Why? Read the 
verse that immediately precedes this state- 
ment : "For I am determined not to know 
anything among you save Jesus Christ, and 
Him crucified." 

4. He must have the Passion for Souls. 
And of all human qualifications perhaps this 
is the most important. The extent of a 



An Evangelistic Ministry. 33 

man's burden for souls will be evident in 
his preaching. An old lady, who had been 
to hear the great Scotch preacher, Robert 
McCheyne, preach, said, "He preaches as 
if he is a-dyin' a'most to have you con- 
verted." In a little town in the South a 
colored minister became so burdened for 
the unsaved about him that he went after 
midnight and knelt before every house 
where he knew there lived an unsaved man 
or woman, and pleaded with God. No won- 
der a great revival swept through that com - 
munity. When we come close to the heart 
of Jesus in our concern for the perishing, 
and begin to feel as He felt when He wept 
over the city, then something will happen. 
O that there might come upon the ministry 
everywhere this burning desire to save men 
and women from death ! 

Michael Angelo used to shut himself up 
with the body of a dead man, and so give 
himself to the study of the features that he 
3 



34 Renaissance of Methodism. 

would come out to fashion the marble so 
perfectly that it would seem almost miracu- 
lous. And this passion for souls will only 
be felt as we meditate on the worth and 
destiny of a soul. William Burns, of Scot- 
land, who afterwards went out to China as a 
missionary, had to turn off from Argyle 
Street in Glasgow in order to weep when 
he saw the vast crowds of people passing 
up and down that busy street. Who has 
ever read that weird but beautiful poem, 
"The City of Dreadful Night," who does 
not remember that scene where the author 
describes the experience in the desert, where 
wild, hideous things clutched at him, and 
then, when he stood on the bluff overlooking 
the sea where the breakers were beating on 
the white sandy beach, there on the sand 
lay a body which he recognized to be his 
own? The waves came nearer and nearer 
as he watched himself lying there. Then he 
saw a white figure come down the beach — 



An Evangelistic Ministry. 35 

a woman clothed in white, with something 
red and glowing- in her hand. As she came 
near to rescue him he saw that she bore in 
her hand her own bleeding heart. What a 
picture for the soul-winner's inspiration! 
Men are perishing, perishing! The billows 
of destruction come nearer and nearer to 
those who are dead in trespasses and sins. 
O that we might go with our own bleeding 
hearts in our hands to these perishing mul- 
titudes, and save them ! God help us to 
have the passion for souls ! 

5. He must have the Bnduement of 
Power. There is nothing else that can pos- 
sibly be substituted with success for the 
fullness of the Spirit of God. The engine 
may be as perfect as human mechanism can 
make it. It may have mighty wheels, and 
ponderous shafts, and polished trimmings ; 
but if it is to have power, it must have fire. 
And it is so with the minister of Jesus 
Christ. He may have every other gift and 



36 Renaissance: oe Methodism. 

qualification necessary to evangelize, but 
without the baptism of fire his words will 
be as "sounding brass or a clanging cym- 
bal." 

St. Antoninus, in a fable, represents 
Satan in the garb of a friar preaching the 
gospel. When questioned as to why he 
should do this, he answered that nothing 
is so hardening as the gospel preached with- 
out the unction of the Spirit of God. My 
brother, do not dare to preach the gospel 
without having experienced a personal pen- 
tecost. Jesus would not allow the members 
of the apostolic band and of the first Chris- 
tian Church to go to preach this gospel of 
the crucified and risen Christ until they had 
tarried for the enduement of power. They 
would do more harm than good. And zve 
must not go until we have been in the upper 
room. 



An Evangelistic Church. 



The ministry may be ever so consecrated 
and faithful, yet without a consecrated 
Church, responsive to the Word, there will 
be no great revival. The secret of the won- 
derful ingathering of Pentecost lay in the 
fact that a Spirit-filled Church stood about 
the preacher. On Mars' Hill, Paul 
preached, but there was no revival. At Pen- 
tecost, Peter preached, surrounded by a 
praying Church, and three thousand were 
converted. Some one once asked Dr. Ly- 
man Beecher why his Church was so suc- 
cessful. He replied: "Because when I 
preach on Sunday there are four hundred 
and fifty people present to hear the sermon, 
and go out to repeat it during the six suc- 
ceeding days to every soul whom they 
meet." But of a very small proportion of 
39 



40 Renaissance; of Methodism 

our Churches could that be said. Were the 
spirit of aggressive evangelism prevalent in 
our Churches, the kingdom of Christ would 
speedily prevail. 

There are some things that hinder this 
spirit of evangelism. 

i. Worldliness. There is probably noth- 
ing else that hinders more the coming of 
the kingdom of Jesus Christ in this age 
than conformity to the world on the part of 
those who profess to be His followers. "Be 
not conformed to this world, but be ye trans- 
formed by the renewing of your mind, that 
ye may prove what is that good, and ac- 
ceptable, and perfect will of God." But the 
only difference discoverable between a mul- 
titude of Church members and those who 
make no profession of religion is that the 
former have their names on some Church 
record. And this is true in Methodism to- 
day as well as in some of our sister 
Churches. While assisting in special re- 



An Evangelistic Church. 41 

vival meetings in one of the largest 
Churches in the West, one night we discov- 
ered that several official members had gone 
to a popular play at the theater instead of 
being in their places at the revival. In an- 
other city, a State capital, the superintend- 
ent of the Sunday-school in the First 
Methodist Church went to the theater and 
took his family, while his Church was in 
the midst of a revival campaign. No won- 
der the blessed Spirit of God is grieved 
again and again, and the pastor's heart is 
broken, and the multitudes remain away 
from Christ. There are many pastors who 
long for a genuine revival of religion in 
their Churches, but because of the worldli- 
ness of the membership the way seems ut- 
terly blocked. Is it not time that some 
prophet of God would go through the 
Churches crying "Cleanse your hands, ye 
sinners ; and purify your hearts, ye double- 
minded"? Is it not time that the Church 



42 Renaissance; of Methodism. 

would again hear the cry of her Lord, 
"Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O 
Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O 
Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth 
there shall no more come unto thee the un- 
circumcised and the unclean. . . . De- 
part ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, 
touch no unclean thing; be ye clean that 
bear the vessels of the Lord." 

2. Social Pride. How very unlike Jesus 
Christ are some who profess to be His fol- 
lowers, in their attitude toward the unfor- 
tunate, the poor, and the sin-cursed ! Jesus 
was known as the friend of publicans and 
sinners. He went into their homes, talked 
with them, ate with them, helped them to a 
better life. He was specially kind and con- 
siderate toward the weak and the fallen. 
From His lips fell scathing denunciations of 
the scribes and Pharisees, who thought 
themselves too holy to show any kindness 
to a poor lost woman, while from His eyes 



An Evangelistic Church. 43 

fell tears of pity for the sin-chained, sin- 
cursed, all about Him. 

Dr. Howard Agnew Johnston, of New 
York City, says that once, while he was 
pastor of a large Church, a poor Magdalen 
came to his study, told him that her heart 
was sick in sin, and that she had been to 
three or four persons asking them to help 
her to a better life, but they had all turned 
her out. He talked kindly to her, and 
prayed with her, and she gave herself to 
Christ. Then he helped her to a position. 
But when some of the women in his Church 
found what he was doing, they rebuked him, 
and thought themselves disgraced by their 
pastor having anything to do with a woman 
like her. "Tell it not in Gath, publish it not 
in Askelon," that those who profess to be 
followers of the meek and lowly Savior 
should dare to rebuke a minister of His for 
seeking the lost and the perishing. The 
Holy Spirit is often grieved through the 



44 Renaissance oe Methodism. 

pride and selfishness of our hearts, and can 
not use us as the channels of His grace. 
In her early days, Methodism was to the im- 
prisoned and the sin-cursed and the lost 
what the Salvation Army is to them to-day. 
Shall we lose our crown ? 

3. Indifference concerning the Condition 
of the Unsaved. Is it not the strangest 
thing in human life that while all about us, 
perhaps in our own homes, are those who 
are unsaved and who at any moment may 
drop into a Christless eternity, we make so 
little effort to save them from death? Ac- 
cording to our Lord's teaching, every soul 
that has not believed on Him as Savior is in 
a lost condition. "He that believeth not is 
condemned already." 

Olive Schreiner, in her story of "A South 
African Farm," draws a vivid picture of a 
little German boy who caught a glimpse of 
souls dying. Waking up at midnight, he 
hears the ticking of his father's big hunting- 



An Evangelistic Church. 45 

case watch on the table, and then he remem- 
bers what his father said the evening before 
at family worship, that with every tick of 
the watch a soul goes into eternity. And 
now the watch seemed to be saying, "Eter- 
nity, eternity, eternity." The boy covered 
his head and tried not to think, and not to 
hear. But he could not stop thinking. Put- 
ting back the clothing he heard the watch 
still ticking, and it seemed now to be say- 
ing, "Dying, dying, dying." Then the boy 
saw a great dark valley, through which 
was winding a long procession of men and 
women toward a terrible precipice, over 
which they were dropping into darkness, 
one by one, with every tick of the watch. 
The boy could control his feelings no longer. 
He sprang from his bed, threw himself on 
his face on the floor, and cried, "O God, 
save one! save one!" Would to God that 
every professing Christian might have the 
vision of that little boy ! For there are so 



46 ENAISSANCE OF METHODISM. 

many who seem to have no conception of 
the value of an immortal soul, and do so 
little to save a soul from death. 

4. Unconfessed Sin. There is no use in 
trying to disguise the fact that there are 
many men and women who are covering up 
some secret sin, or trying to hide some un- 
christian temper, and who are barren of 
spiritual power and usefulness. "He that 
covereth his sin shall not prosper." In a 
certain Church was a man who had served 
as a trustee for years, and when the revival- 
meetings began he took a prominent part. 
He said to me, "I do not understand why I 
do not have more courage and power to 
speak to men about their souls." That very 
day the Spirit of God smote him, and he 
confessed that some years before, when he 
sold a quantity of wheat, he had been paid 
seventy-five dollars too much, but he had 
said nothing about it, and had kept the 
money. That day he went to the man who 



An Evangelistic Church. 47 

had bought his wheat, and who knew noth- 
ing of the mistake, and made arrangements 
to pay back the seventy-five dollars. Then 
he was mightily used of God during the 
meetings to lead many men to Christ. God 
can not use a man, if in his life is any un- 
forgiven sin. 

The pastor of a certain Church appointed 
four days for fasting and prayer for a re- 
vival. The morning and afternoon meet- 
ings were for Church members only, and 
when they had come together the doors were 
locked. Then the time was spent in humil- 
iation and confession before God. On the 
morning of the fourth day, when the people 
had gathered about the altar, and many 
who had been professing Christians for 
years were in tears at the thought of their 
sins of omission and commission, the pastor 
heard a knocking at the door, and, opening 
it, found several unsaved people who had 
come to give themselves to God. That was 



48 Renaissance: of Methodism. 

the beginning of a revival that swept like a 
prairie fire through that whole community. 
Let the people put away all iniquity, and 
humble themselves before God, and the 
Spirit of God will then begin to work 
mightily. 

5. Prejudice against Revivals. In these 
days, when in the average congregation at 
least two-thirds of the Christian people will 
admit that they began the Christian life in 
a revival, it is inconceivable that any Chris- 
tian man or woman should decry revivals. 
It has been the means that God has greatly 
honored in every age of spiritual progress. 
Indeed, no one can study the history of 
great revival epochs without coming to see 
that every great revival has had its salutary 
influence upon the nation's life; and when 
revivals have ceased, the people have in- 
evitably lapsed into worldliness and im- 
morality. It must be admitted that some re- 
vivals, and some revivalists, who have 



An Evangelistic Church. 49 

sought their own glory rather than the glory 
of God, have not always furthered the king- 
dom of Christ. But these are very rare ex- 
ceptions. The most effective way to remove 
a prejudice against revivals is to have a gen- 
uine revival. No man or woman whose 
heart is right with God will stand aloof and 
criticise when souls are being born into the 
kingdom of Christ, and men and women are 
confessing their backsliding of heart, and 
pledging anew fidelity to their Lord. 

A careful study of the Acts of the Apos- 
tles reveals some elements that made the 
early Church a flaming evangel. 

1. The Church was united. "The multi- 
tude of them that believed were of one heart 
and of one soul." Thus the Savior's prayer 
for his Church, recorded in John xvii, 21, 
was answered. This unity became a mighty 
element of strength. It is always so. In 
4 



50 Renaissance; of Methodism. 

that community where the Christian people 
are of one mind in desiring a revival, and 
each person is willing to do his part, a re- 
vival is inevitable. There can be no spirit 
of successful evangelism in a Church when 
there are feuds and backbitings and bicker- 
ings. The Spirit of God is grieved and 
turned away from His own house, while the 
people perish all about. In one of those 
great wheat-fields of the Northwest, that are 
often miles long and miles wide, a little 
girl was lost one day. The family searched 
in vain. Then the neighbors came to help. 
The news finally reached the town some 
miles away, and people came by scores 
to join in the search. All night they 
searched and called, but the child was not 
found. When morning came, one of the 
searchers called all people together and said, 
"Now the child must be in this field. Let 
us join hands and walk across the field in 
line." They did so. Two hundred people 



An Evangelistic Church. 51 

marched across the field in line, then back 
again, then across again, until they came 
upon the little child, who was almost dead. 
They carried her to the house, but she died 
before the sun had set. Ah, why did not 
those people join hands the night before, 
and the precious little life would doubtless 
have been saved? And there are multi- 
tudes in almost every community who would 
be saved if all the disciples of Jesus Christ 
would join hands. 

2. The Church was Mighty in Prayer. 
They held a ten-days' prayer-meeting, and 
three thousand were converted. On fre- 
quent occasions, when they were gathered 
in prayer, "the place was shaken where they 
were assembled together." After such a 
meeting, "with great power gave the apos- 
tles witness of the resurrection of the Lord 
Jesus : and great grace was upon them all." 
Peter was in prison, and the Church prayed. 
His chains were struck off by God's angel. 



52 Renaissance of Methodism 

He rose up, leaving his soldier guards, and 
followed the angel to freedom and home. 

These early disciples lived in intimate fel- 
lowship with their risen Lord, and when 
they asked they received. Mark Guy Pearse 
says that "Our gracious Lord has many vis- 
itors. Some come as His poor dependents, 
knocking at His back door and seeking to 
get their baskets filled with the scraps they 
need. They have the Lord's gifts ; but they 
never see His face, they never hear His 
voice, they never know His heart. Some 
are His servants. They dwell with Him. 
They seek to know His will, and set them- 
selves to do it earnestly. They commune 
with Him. And yet they do not dwell in 
the innermost circle. Having done His 
work, they turn to their own. But some are 
His children. They are always with Him. 
They live in His presence. They are ever 
at home with Him. They know His heart. 
Unto them He saith, 'Son, thou art ever 



An Evangelistic Church. 53 



with Me, and all that I have is thine.' The 
early Christian disciples were His children. 
They knew how to prevail with God. When 
the Church of to-day learns the secret of the 
Lord as these early Christians seem to have 
known it, then every day will be a Pente- 
cost." 

3. The Church recognized the Leadership 
of the Holy Spirit. "Filled with the Spirit/' 
they abandoned themselves to the will of the 
Spirit. In all their assemblies and in all their 
plans the Holy Spirit's leadership was ex- 
pected. When they chose the members of 
the first official board they chose men "full 
of the Holy Ghost." When men were to be 
set apart for some special evangelistic or 
missionary service, the Holy Spirit selected 
these men and sent them. And the Holy 
Spirit is still the Divine Administrator in 
the Church of Jesus Christ. But have we 
not, in a measure at least, gotten away from 
this simple, direct, New Testament method 



54 Renaissance: of Methodism. 

in the Lord's work? Do we not depend 
more upon our ponderous ecclesiastical ma- 
chinery and our own wisdom than upon the 
Spirit of God? Is not the blessed Spirit 
grieved again and again at the usurpation of 
His own work, and have we not, having 
made our own plans, gone stumbling along 
like a mob when we should be moving like 
an invincible army? O, Church of God, 
when shall we learn again the way of 
triumph? When shall we come to recog- 
nize the authority and generalship of the 
Divine Spirit in all our plans for aggressive 
evangelism ? 



Doctrines to be Preached. 



If Methodism would keep her place as 
the advance guard for the world's evangel- 
ization, there are some cardinal doctrines of 
Scripture that must be emphasized anew in 
her pulpits. Indeed, it may well be said that 
in all the Churches we need a revival of 
the right kind of doctrinal preaching. In 
recent years we have had so much of a cer- 
tain kind of so-called practical preaching, 
which has opened the way for a flood-tide 
of claptrap and sensationalism, that we need 
not wonder at the instability and shallow- 
ness of many professing Christians. In 
many pulpits the great truths of the Word 
of God have been neglected, and there has 
been substituted for them the fustian and 
twaddle and platitudes of what has been 
called "a new evangelism." But this wicked 
57 



58 Renaissance of Methodism. 

world will never be stirred to its depths un- 
til the eternal and fundamental truths of 
Holy Scripture shall be thundered with a 
tongue of fire from every pulpit of Christen- 
dom. A study of the pulpit themes during 
great revival epochs would be sufficient to 
convince any reasonable man of the truth 
of this statement. Let us look briefly at a 
few of these doctrines. 

I. Conviction for Sin and Repentance 
toward God. We must return to preach 
more as our fathers did concerning the ex- 
ceeding sinfulness of sin, the certainty of 
eternal punishment for the lost, and the 
necessity of repentance on the part of every 
man and woman who would enter the king- 
dom of God. We have had so much to say 
in these days about the social aspects of 
Christianity that, in many of our Churches, 
we have well-nigh forgotten to emphasize 
this great fundamental doctrine. Jesus 
Christ came to save sinners, and men must 



Doctrines to be Preached 59 

be brought to see their wickedness of heart, 
their rebellion against God, and their need 
of Christ. But the preaching of ethical cul- 
ture, and disquisitions on social theories will 
never lead men to feel their great need of 
salvation from sin. Lord Chesterfield said, 
"If you would have the people think well of 
you, make them think well of themselves." 
That advice is being followed in some pul- 
pits to-day ; but it means the betrayal rather 
than the exaltation of Christ. For when 
men do not see the awfulness of sin, the ac- 
ceptance of salvation is likely to be an in- 
sincere pretension. 

2. Regeneration through Faith. The bat- 
tle-cry of the Reformation must still be ours. 
There is only one way into the kingdom, 
and that by faith in Christ. And saving- 
faith in Christ always results in regenera- 
tion by the Holy Spirit. The greatest need 
of the Church of to-day is a return to a pro- 
found belief in a true conversion as funda- 



60 Renaissance of Methodism. 

mental to a Christian life. So many have 
come into the Church by other methods that 
it is no wonder there are many Churches 
cursed with worldliness and indifference, 
and which are little more than social clubs. 

The signing of a card, or the joining of a 
Church, will never save a soul from death. 
A man may sign a thousand cards and join 
every Church on earth, and yet go into the 
deepest hell. Better one person converted 
to God than fifty who merely sign a card 
as the expression of a desire, and stop with 
that. 

And all these abnormal social conditions 
will never be righted by some modern meth- 
ods. A Hull House, or a social settlement, 
may be a great blessing to a community of 
people, but it will never save them. The 
great Brooklyn preacher, Newell Dwight 
Hillis, recently made this startling con- 
fession : "I see that what I had once hoped 
might be done for my fellows through 



Doctrines to be Preached. 6i 

schemes of social reform and philanthropy 
can only be done by the influence of Jesus 
Christ. For there is no dynamic in reform 
save the cross of Jesus Christ." The New 
Testament way to right social conditions is 
to get men converted. When men are "born 
again" by the Spirit of God, and their lives 
are saturated with the Christ life, then we 
shall have ideal social conditions, but not be- 
fore. 

3. The Witness of the Spirit. To-day 
there is an element of uncertainty in the ex- 
perience of a multitude of people in the 
Churches. They hope they are saved. They 
hope they have received the Holy Spirit. 
This accounts for their indifference and bar- 
renness. Where there is no positive expe- 
rience, there will be no aggressive and 
cheerful service for Christ. The direct wit- 
ness of the Spirit to our adoption must be 
insisted upon as vital to a useful Christian 
life. Where there is a consciousness of 



62 Renaissance: of Methodism. 

God's presence and indwelling, there will be 
loving, self-sacrificing service. This is what 
has given to the Christian Church heroes 
and heroines in every age — the inward con- 
sciousness of the personal fulfillment of the 
Savior's promise, "Lo, I am with you al- 
ways." We must return to emphasize the 
New Testament doctrine of the witness of 
the Spirit. 

4. The Infilling of the Spirit. "And they 
were all filled with the Holy Ghost." We 
have been talking too much about blessings, 
and too little about the Blesser. We have 
had too much sanctimonious testifying, and 
too little sanctified living. We have had too 
much emphasizing of certain words and 
shibboleths, and too little power in winning 
men and women from sin to Christ. 

To-day the Church needs such a Pente- 
cost as came to the one hundred and twenty 
in the upper room, and sent them out like 
flaming evangels, but with tact and love and 
real power to win the multitudes. Minis- 



Doctrines to be Preached. 63 

ters of the gospel need this infilling that 
they may denounce sin, declare mercy, and 
proclaim judgment. St. Chrysostom is said 
to have had a vision in which he saw the 
altar rails crowded with angels listening to 
the sermon. The minister of Jesus Christ 
who has been in the upper room will see an 
open heaven before him as he preaches, and 
will not spend much time reading essays on 
science or metaphysics. At his words good 
men will be summoned to duty, and bad 
men will be "pricked in their hearts." Busi- 
ness men need this fullness that they may 
be true to Christ and make no compromise 
with wrong. Christian women need this 
fullness that they may resist the floodtide 
of worldliness in modern society life and be 
true to Christ, even though it means social 
ostracism. Young people need this infilling 
that they may shun harmful amusements for 
Jesus' sake and for others' sake. And we 
all need this blessed fullness of the Holy 
Spirit that we may go out as did the early 



64 ENAISSANCE OF METHODISM. 

disciples to rescue from sin and death the 
perishing multitudes all about us. 

5. The Lord's Return. There have been 
so many impertinent predictions, vagaries, 
and chronological absurdities concerning the 
second coming of Christ that the Church 
has either almost repudiated, or else ex- 
plained away, this precious New Testament 
teaching. Yet Christ evidently intended 
that His Church should wait in constant ex- 
pectation of His return, and that this ex- 
pectation should be an impetus to holy living 
and valiant service. 

When the astonished disciples were try- 
ing to catch another glimpse of their ascend- 
ing Lord, they were startled by a voice, and 
turning about saw two men — probably 
Moses and Elias — who said: "Ye men of 
Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? 
This Jesus who was received up from you 
into heaven, shall so come in like manner as 
ye beheld Him going into heaven." Now, 



Doctrines to be; Preached. 65 

if these words mean anything, they certainly 
mean, as our own Bishop Merrill says, that 
His coming shall be "literal, personal, and 
visible." In St. Paul's Epistles alone there 
are fifty references to the second coming of 
Christ. Why try to explain away these 
Scriptures ? If Jesus said, "No man know- 
eth the day," and if He said, "Watch ye 
therefore, for at such an hour as ye think 
not the Son of man cometh," has any man, 
whether a Premillennialist or a Postmillen- 
nialist, any right to say that He shall not 
come to-day ? The story is told of a young 
lady whose parents died when she was an in- 
fant. A friend of the family cared for her, 
and saw that she had a comfortable home. 
Before she was old enough to know her 
benefactor, his business took him to Europe. 
The little girl grew into young womanhood ; 
but she never failed to get a letter regularly 
from her absent friend, who sent her all the 
money she needed. One day she received 

5 



66 Renaissance: of Methodism. 



word that he was coming to visit her. He 
said he would arrive some time during a 
certain week, but did not fix the day. Dur- 
ing that week the young lady received an in- 
vitation to take a pleasure trip with some 
friends. She said to herself, "I shall only 
be gone a day, and he will probably not 
come on that day, and if he does come he 
will wait." She went ; but her friend came 
that very day, and when he inquired con- 
cerning her absence, he went away. When 
the young lady returned she found this note : 
"My life has been a struggle for you : might 
not you have waited one week for me?" 
More she never heard of him, and her life 
of plenty became one of want. 

Jesus has gone away. He has promised 
to return. He has not fixed the day, but 
has commanded us to watch. What if, 
when He does come, He shall find us ab- 
sorbed in the things of the world and not 
ready to receive Him ? 



Methods to be Emphasized, 



I. Personal Work. The key to the twen- 
tieth-century revival is personal work. Mul- 
titudes of professing Christians are shifting 
their responsibility in the matter of soul- 
winning to the Church as an organization. 
It was not so with the early Christians. 
Then every man and woman who confessed 
Christ became a bearer of good tidings to 
others. The Holy Spirit puts into every 
newly converted heart the desire to help 
others to Christ, and when there is no re- 
sponse to that desire the Holy Spirit is 
grieved. There are multitudes of people in 
the Churches backslidden in heart because 
they have thus neglected to obey the Spirit 
of God. 

In early Methodism the class-meeting 
was not only an "experience-meeting," but 
69 



70 Renaissance of Methodism. 

a personal worker's training-class. From 
this meeting men and women went out with 
a new inspiration to lead others to Christ. 
The decline of the class-meeting in our 
Churches has resulted in the neglect of per- 
sonal work. And there are now in almost 
every community some persons — often 
many — to whom a personal invitation to 
Christ has not been spoken for months, per- 
haps for years. The night clerk in a large 
hotel, to whom we spoke a few words about 
his soul, said that although he had been 
away from home eighteen years, no one had 
talked to him about this matter before. A 
railroad conductor, to whom we spoke a few 
words one day on a train in Iowa, said, 
"Well, you are the first man who has ever 
talked to me about my soul on this train, 
although I have been on this run for five 
years." If all disciples of Jesus Christ 
would make it their business, lovingly and 
tactfully, to speak well of their Lord to some 



Methods to be Emphasized. 71 

unsaved person every day, it would not be 
long until revival flames would be kindled 
everywhere. 

A personal workers' class should be or- 
ganized and trained in every Church. The 
pastor will then have a band of workers who 
will be ready for service in the prayer-meet- 
ing, in the Sunday evening services, and at 
times of special revival effort. 

2. Open-air Meetings. We have been 
having an era of church-building, and Meth- 
odism can boast of many magnificent tem- 
ples of worship. And that is well. "The 
Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than 
all the dwellings of Jacob." But if we set- 
tle down in our comfortable and stately 
churches, and forget about the highways 
and hedges, we mistake the mission of 
Christianity. Better that Methodism had 
her home, as of yore, in the fields, the 
woods, and the streets, preaching Christ to 
the multitudes everywhere, than to have 



72 Renaissance of Methodism. 

magnificent churches and splendid music, 
but no souls saved at her altars, and her 
worship a dead form. The house of wor- 
ship should be the rallying place, or recruit- 
ing station, from which bands of workers 
would go out into streets and fields and fac- 
tories, as did the early Methodists, to tell 
the story of Jesus and His love. 

The camp-meeting, or tent-meeting, once 
so mightily used of God in this land for the 
conversion of sinners and sanctification of 
believers, has in recent years more often be- 
come a convention for the promulgation of 
doctrinal specialties than an effort for the 
salvation of souls, and has thus been 
shunned by sinners. This splendid instru- 
mentality ought to be rejuvenated. Every 
city Church should own one tent or more, 
and plan tent campaigns and open-air meet- 
ings during the summer months wherever a 
congregation can be secured. Bands of con- 
secrated workers who would go upon our 



Methods to be; Emphasized 73 

busy streets, as does the Salvation Army, 
might glean a great harvest of souls. 

3. Sunday-school Evangelism. We must 
emphasize anew the importance of getting 
our boys and girls converted. This should 
be the supreme purpose of all our Sunday- 
school work. Better a boy converted to 
Christ than a grown man, for a grown man 
has already wasted the best part of his life 
in sin; and many of the greatest and best 
men and women that the Church has ever 
had were converted in childhood. The Sun- 
day-school teacher who simply tries to en- 
tertain her class, and does not aim at the 
conversion of each scholar to Christ, is un- 
worthy of her high calling. In a certain 
city a teacher said to her pastor: "I want 
you to have a reception service next Sun- 
day. I have fifteen girls in my class. They 
have all been converted. The last one came 
to Christ yesterday. Now I want them all 



74 Renaissance of Methodism. 

taken into the Church together." She was 
an ideal teacher. 

Some Sunday-schools have been having a 
Decision service once a year. Better, once 
a quarter. Better still, once a month. The 
devil is on the track of the boys and girls 
and young people, and we must get them 
into the kingdom before he binds them with 
his chains. If the pastor or superintendent 
would meet with the teachers once each 
month, make a list of the unconverted in 
each class, and then spend some time in 
earnest prayer for these unconverted ones, 
we would soon have gracious revivals in all 
our Sunday-schools. 

4. The Prayer-meeting. Only a very 
small proportion of our membership attend 
the week-night prayer-meeting. Indeed in 
many Churches it is a mere handful. Many 
of the members of our young people's so- 
cieties seem to think that if they attend the 
Sunday evening devotional service, that is 



Methods to be Emphasiz 75 

sufficient. The week-night prayer-meeting 
should be, not only the rallying place for 
all the workers, but we should begin to in- 
sist everywhere that no person, whether 
young or old, can make the spiritual growth 
and be as useful as he might, who is able 
to attend the week-night prayer-meeting 
and does not do so. No social or business 
engagement should be allowed to interfere 
with our attendance at this meeting. In a 
certain city there is a Christian man of large 
business interests who employs many men. 
He is a very busy man, yet he is never 
known to neglect the prayer-meeting at his 
church. If friends or visitors come to his 
home on that evening, he will say: "Now, 
we always all go to prayer-meeting. We 
shall be glad to have you go with us. If you 
do not care to go, you are welcome to stay 
until we return." It will not be wondered 
that the Lord is greatly prospering that man. 
But if we expect the people to attend the 



76 Renaissance of Methodism. 

prayer-meeting, we must make it worth 
while. We must get out of the ruts. There 
must be a definite purpose in our plans for 
that service. The people should understand 
that they will be expected to bring their un- 
saved friends and neighbors, and help them 
into the kingdom. In the prayer-meeting 
the two gifts of instruction and evangelism 
should be combined in such a way that 
Christians will be built up in the faith, and 
sinners converted to Christ. 

5. Special Revival Services. Such meet- 
ings are no longer peculiar to Methodism. 
Their necessity is recognized by nearly all 
Churches in some form or other ; and every 
Church that has for its model the New Tes- 
tament Church, will certainly plan for sea- 
sons of special effort in behalf of the un- 
saved. There were two prerequisites to the 
revival that occurred on the Day of Pente- 
cost — an anointed ministry, and an anointed 



Methods to be Emphasized. 77 

Church. Peter was the preacher. But 
Peter had been in the upper room, and he 
spake with a tongue of fire. But as he 
spake, the whole Church stood about him 
in pfayer, and soon as the sermon was fin- 
ished they all ran here and there through 
the great multitude, repeating the message 
and urging the people to accept Christ as 
Savior. In the judgment-day it may be 
seen that the remarkable results of this first 
revival in the Christian Church were due 
not so much to Peter's sermon as to the per- 
sonal work immediately following the ser- 
mon. 

Much depends upon prayerful prepara- 
tions for such meetings. There were ten 
days of unceasing prayer preceding this first 
revival. Cottage-meeting bands and prayer- 
meeting groups should be organized, and 
every member of the Church should be 
called upon to do something in the work 



78 Renaissance; of Methodism. 

of preparation. A careful canvass of the 
community should be made by discreet per- 
sons, and the names of all unsaved men, 
women, and young people secured. Inter- 
cessory prayer should be made for these, and 
they should be visited by the pastor and 
other workers. 

In the early Church God made provision 
for special helpers, when needed, in the 
work of evangelization. "And he gave some 
to be apostles; and some, prophets; and 
some, evangelists; and some, pastors and 
teachers/' God just as surely calls men to 
the work of an evangelist to-day as He calls 
men to the work of a pastor. Happy is the 
pastor who possesses the gift of an evangel- 
ist; but not all pastors do. And he who 
does, sometimes finds himself at a place, 
because of the heavy burdens of the modern 
pastorate, where he needs re-enforcements 
in his special revival work. To be sure, the 



Methods to be Emphasized. 79 

office of evangelist has been sometimes mis- 
used by self-appointed men, just as the pas- 
torate has been sometimes misused. The 
paragraph in the Discipline concerning 
evangelists has often been made the dump- 
ing-ground for men who have failed in the 
pastorate. Nevertheless, there are men and 
women called of God to do this blessed work 
as helpers to the pastors, and to whom the 
Holy Spirit has given gifts and graces for 
the work. Therefore care should be taken 
in the employment of evangelists, that they 
are men duly accredited by the Evangelistic 
Commission and by the presiding elder of 
the district. 

If these cardinal doctrines of the Word 
of God, preached by the apostles and by our 
fathers, shall be emphasized anew by an 
evangelistic ministry, and these well-tried 
methods of work shall be wisely and faith- 



80 Renaissance of Methodism. 

fully used in all our Churches, then, in an- 
swer to our united prayer, there shall come 
in these twentieth-century days such a Pen- 
tecost as shall girdle the earth and make 
the Church to go forth "clear as the sun, fair 
as the moon, and terrible as an army with 
banners." 



r 



MAR 2.8 1905 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
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Treatment Date: May 2006 

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